Blog Post

12 Plug-in Cars You Can Drive by 2011

Whether you’re itching to sign up for an electric vehicle field trial, hoping to buy one of the earliest plug-in models, or just want a heads up on what models you might see hitting showrooms and U.S. roads in the next couple years, here’s a dozen models to have on your list. Some of them will be available only in select markets or for a handful of fleets initially, but if all goes well (a big if), then this could mark the first trickle before a flood of plug-in models during the next decade.

What

When

Where

How Much

BMW Concept ActiveE– BEV– 4 seats

Limited leasing in 2011

U.S., EU

TBA

BMW Mini-E– BEV
– 2 seats

Field trials underway; expanding 2010

Germany, U.S., UK, China

$850/month lease

BYD e6– BEV– 5 seats

Late 2010

Select U.S. markets initially, likely starting with Southern California, followed by San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Boston.

Hey this electric cars may harm our climate if the our power grid system didn’t go environment friendly, which make things worse than expected. and more over it’s increase the waste material of batteries which may cause more effect in long term to the climate, we should find the way to combat with those before we start, else we see the world which is more worse than today

I made my 05 Prius into a PHEV50 with a lithium pack. We drive 30-40 miles pure electric and only have to buy gas on long trips. http://www.pluginsupply.com
It was only about $12K and makes the prius so much better. The batteries may only last 10-12 years and will be 1/4 the price and 10x the energy by then.

The nomenclature has become confused because GM has introduced the E-REV moniker unnecessarily. The Volt is a series plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHV, the electric is really superfluous, so I don’t include it like most people). GM has tried to assert that PHVs don’t have all-electric capability, but there is nothing to support this assertion. GM wants the Volt to be treated like an EV by the EPA in their mileage assessment, and that is why they have muddied the waters with the E-REV term. But just to be clear: PHVs can and do have full all-electric capabilities, and so you can call the Volt and the Fisker Karma series PHVs.

There’s a federal tax credit of $7,500 and further incentives available state by state (http://www.pluginamerica.org/state-incentives), so many of these cars should cost considerably less than some of the prices you have listed here.

Plug-in cars certainly don’t offer a silver bullet to solve climate change. Some studies have found, however, that even when plugging into a â€œdirty grid,â€ electric cars can result in fewer overall emissions than their gasoline-fueled counterparts because power plants burn coal more efficiently than cars burn gas, and can potentially be controlled more effectively. More on that here: http://earth2tech.com/2009/11/12/surprise-electric-cars-not-actually-zero-emission/